A major target of the labor movement next year will be the Taylor Law, anti-labor legislation that prohibits state and municipal employees from exercising their right to strike, Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, told Local 237 members.

Hughes said that organized labor will have a great opportunity next year to see the law’s anti-worker prohibitions eliminated.

“There isn’t a working man or woman in the state or city that isn’t disadvantaged by a 33-year-old law that was passed in a different time and that favored the employers,” he said.

Hughes pointed out that although unions have been able to effect some small adjustments in the law over the years, it has never been looked at completely. He said that all facets of the law will be considered next year and “we’re going to finish it.”

Hughes said it will be possible because it’s an election year and the resurgent strength of organized labor will force the politicians to recognize the power of a unified labor movement.

The Politicians’ Fear

Hughes said the only reason the politicians will act is out of fear of not being elected. “Nobody does anything for benevolence,” he said. “They do things because they want to get elected.”

Hughes said the guarantee of getting satisfactory legislation enacted is power. “The key to political action for all of us is power — getting that power, managing that power, and using that power.”

He contended that there is an attitude of reactionary thought rampant in the city and the state which requires those in organized labor to be continually developing strategies to get around it. “We don’t have the luxury to be predictable,” Hughes said. “We have to be wily; we have to do things that are unexpected, that throws them off.”

The state labor official told his audience that neither his organization nor Local 237 have power of themselves, but obtain it only from the unity and support of their members.

Hughes said it was vital that all members take an active part in the union and its varied activities. “We know that we can make the changes,” he insisted, “but we need the 100 percent cooperation of all union members to sustain them.”